1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication system, a communication apparatus, and a communication method.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a form of a communication system for performing data transmission/reception among multiple communication apparatuses, there is known a video (television) conference system that realizes a remote conference by using a communication network. This video conference system can conduct a conference between remote locations almost like a face-to-face meeting in such a way that by using a communication apparatus (a terminal device) of the video conference system set up in a conference room where one of the parties participating in the remote conference, an image of the conference room such as conference participants and a voice, such as speaker's voice, are converted into digital data, and the digital data is transmitted to a communication apparatus of the other party to display the image on a display and output the voice from a speaker in a conference room of the other party.
In such a video conference system, a microphone is used to acquire conference participants' voice, and a camera is used to acquire their image. The camera has an angle of view, and therefore cannot capture an image of a conference participant who is outside the angle of view. To solve this problem, there is known a method of using a panoramic camera capable of capturing a 360-degree panoramic image. On the other hand, a general microphone is omnidirectional, and therefore picks up the ambient sound besides participant's speech. To solve this problem, there is known a method of using a microphone array to control the directivity, i.e., increase the sensitivity of a microphone that picks up the sound from a particular direction, thereby suppressing the ambient sound from being picked up and enabling participant's speech to be heard clearly. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-274463 has disclosed a method of how a conference terminal forms a beam of sound picked up by a microphone array according to a selected placement pattern of participants. Furthermore, Japanese Patent No. 5028944 has disclosed a technology to detect the direction of a speaker by use of a microphone array composed of an array of a plurality of microphones and make the shooting direction of a camera follow the detected direction.
There can be considered a method of realizing a more realistic video conference with a combination of a panoramic camera and a microphone array, namely, by shooting a whole conference room with the panoramic camera and, if there is a speaker, setting the sound pickup area of a microphone toward at least the speaker. However, this combination can set the sound pickup area of a microphone toward a speaker, though a communication apparatus of the other party may not want output focused on the speaker. Therefore, there is a problem that this combination does not enable an output intended by each communication apparatus composing a communication system.
In view of the above, there is a need to provide a communication system, a communication apparatus, and a communication method that enable one's intended output.